Serdur made a deduction based on his own physical reactions.
"You should go out and rest first."
Seeing that his face was starting to turn slightly pale.
Aaliyah hurriedly spoke.
"We can handle things here. If anything happens, we’ll call you."
They actually didn’t dare push the door open and go in, afraid that making any noise might cause some bad outcome.
The only thing they could do was wait quietly outside.
...
A day passed in the blink of an eye.
Then came the second day, the third day...
Aaliyah and the others were getting a little anxious.
Fortunately, feeling the aura inside the room, they knew Gauss should be fine.
It was just that after all, several days had gone by, so they still couldn’t help but worry.
"The heartbeat sounds like it’s gotten lighter."
Aaliyah lowered her voice as she spoke.
In fact, ever since they woke up this morning, the heartbeat in the room had clearly quieted down.
That powerful aura was also slowly drawing back into Gauss’s body.
At this moment, inside the room.
Gauss’s skin had returned to a fair whiteness.
Looking closely, his body surface seemed to be covered by an extremely fine, translucent layer of delicate Dragon Scale.
However, as time went by, that layer of tangible Dragon Scale was slowly merging with his skin, like breathing—sometimes surfacing, sometimes fading away.
Around the sleeping Gauss surged an ancient, as-if-eternal aura of dignified energy, but if one sensed carefully, they would notice it was actually quite faint.
To be precise, it only flashed for an instant, and quickly became undetectable again.
In the depths of Gauss’s consciousness.
At this moment he seemed to be standing within a field of chaos.
And what appeared before him was a beautiful, enormous, near-perfect silhouette of a colossal beast.
He had never seen such a beautiful creature; it was like a miracle created by the Creator, so perfect it almost seemed like something that could not exist in this world.
This was an ancient to the extreme Dragon.
Its whole body’s scales shone, a pair of massive, majestic, sun-crown-like curved horns on its head, its body enormous, as if covering the sky and blotting out the sun.
While Gauss was gazing at it, this Dragon seemed to also cast its gaze upon him.
For some reason, Gauss felt no fear at all.
Or rather, he was currently in a dreamlike state of mind.
Or maybe, was this just a dream?
Gauss himself actually wasn’t sure.
In front of his eyes, fragments of broken memories kept flickering past.
White claws tearing through flesh, a sharp Longsword annihilating a body...
All sorts of scattered shards flashed quickly before him.
After that brief glimpse, he felt a powerful suction pulling from below, churning like a vortex.
His consciousness kept sinking, and the silhouette of that beautiful Giant Dragon gradually blurred, finally submerging into the depths of his consciousness.
...
Gauss opened his eyes.
A streak of rainbow light flashed by.
He shook his head.
Vaguely, he felt like he had just had a dream, but the contents of the dream had long been forgotten.
"Hoo—"
He let out a long breath.
Sitting dazed on the bed for quite a while, he finally remembered what state he had been in before falling asleep.
"Right, I was advancing my [Armored Scale Bloodline]."
He felt his body; this familiar body seemed to have gained some special new power, especially that strong and powerful heart.
He looked at the panel.
Sure enough, the [Armored Scale Bloodline] had successfully advanced, and a new Racial Talent had appeared.
On the panel, this Racial Talent entry was emitting an extremely dazzling purple glow.
"Blue-grade [Armored Scale Bloodline] successfully advanced!"
"Purple-grade [Dragon Kind]"
"The gate toward a flawless body has been opened. Ancient power will slowly awaken deep within your flesh. This is Dragon Power, and also a gift that transcends the mundane."
"Thump! Thump!"
Seeing the words, he subconsciously raised his hand to cover his left chest. There, that strong and powerful heart was slowly beating.
[Dragon Kind].
His whole body felt slightly hot.
So this is the power of Dragon Kind?
Compared to the previous two purple-grade talents, he felt that the changes brought by the [Dragon Kind] talent were the greatest.
Perhaps there was some deeper reason he himself didn’t yet understand?
He sank his powerful consciousness into his body, and very soon his entire body became as clear in his perception as if he were doing inner vision.
There, his heart was particularly "eye-catching."
It was like a powerful machine wrapped in Magic Power and that mighty Dragon Kind power, continuously pumping ample blood throughout his body.
The heart is the engine that sustains life; its role is far more than simply pumping blood—it is the very source of power.
Gauss carefully observed his own heart, now extremely complex and altered in form, and for the first time truly realized that as he grew stronger, his body was destined to embark on an extraordinary path.
That could no longer be called a human heart; it looked more like the heart of a Giant Dragon.
The structure of a human body could no longer bear such overwhelming power.
In fact, it wasn’t just him. The bodily organs of other powerful humans would more or less undergo some evolution or mutation as well.
He took a deep breath.
The next moment, with a "thump" like a war drum, his heart beat.
The Dragon-kind power dwelling in his heart instantly surged toward his right arm.
In the blink of an eye, the muscles of his right arm began to swell, engorged with blood.
"Kaka—"
A layer of fine, translucent scales began to condense on the surface of his skin.
That human arm transformed in an extremely short time into a pristine white dragon arm.
It faintly reflected a seven-colored arc of light; this inhuman trait did not look terrifying, but instead carried a strange, sacred beauty.
"Partial dragonification, huh?"
Gauss flexed the claws on his right arm, feeling the explosive power surging within.
Moreover, this dragon claw was not just a simple increase in strength and defense.
More importantly, its affinity with Magic Power had also increased significantly.
"Ring-raise Light Spell!"
A single thought.
In the center of the five dragon claws, a small yet blindingly bright orb of light instantly condensed into form.
The light it emitted filled the entire room in an instant.
Such fast ring-raising.
Gauss narrowed his eyes slightly.
The vast majority of Magic could be ring-raised. After being ring-raised, a Spell would consume more Magic Power, but its effects would also be enhanced to varying degrees.
However, the process of ring-raising was relatively troublesome and felt less than smooth in actual combat.
This was also why Gauss usually didn’t like to perform ring-raised Casting.
But now, perhaps due to the power of the Racial Talent [Dragon-kind], he felt that ring-raising had become much simpler.
He casually dispelled the Magic.
He glanced at the Attribute Panel.
"Strength +1"
"Constitution +1"
"Perception +1"
"Charm +1"
Strength: 15→16
Agility: 14
Constitution: 15→16
Intelligence: 17
Perception: 13→14
Charm: 14→15
The Racial Talent [Dragon-kind] had given him a full 4 Attribute points.
No wonder he felt that his body had undergone such a significant change.
He arched his brows slightly.
He fell into brief contemplation.
If he remembered correctly, this was the first time a Racial Talent had brought such a large Attribute increase to his body.
Previously, there had been only one instance, when the white-quality [Elementary Dragon Tongue] advanced into the blue-quality [Intermediate Dragon Tongue]; his Charm Attribute seemed to have increased by a bit.
Then came this time, evolving from the blue-quality [Sturdy Dragon Scale Bloodline] into [Dragon-kind].
As for the other talents, whether [Demonic Hour], [Tier Two Ghost Transformation], or the rest, none had increased his Attributes.
He pursed his lips.
These two rare Attribute increases both happened to be related to a dragon bloodline.
Could it be that creatures like Giant Dragons were truly so heaven-favored? Even Racial Talents associated with them seemed anything but ordinary.
Or perhaps he actually possessed some higher degree of compatibility with them?
He shook his head, casting the thought out of his mind.
He turned his gaze toward the door.
Perhaps because the commotion in the house had been quite loud, it had alarmed the teammates outside. He could even sense them pacing back and forth by the door, sometimes lifting their hands to open it, only to lower them again in hesitation.
With a thought.
The doorknob was pressed down by an invisible force.
The door slowly swung open.
The door suddenly opening gave the few outside a start.
But they quickly turned their eyes toward the room.
"Roar—"
An invisible aura surged toward them, instantly making every hair on their bodies stand on end.
In their dazed state, they seemed to see a dragon coiled before them, but in the next blink, the Giant Dragon vanished like smoke.
In its place stood Gauss’s unharmed figure.
Aaliyah and the others immediately let out a breath of relief.